Last September we organized a surprise, three day, vacation in Rome for our two grandchildren, aged eight and eleven. Like most kids of their age, they have a somewhat limited appetite for cultural and historical things. We knew they would absolutely love a trip to Rome – or anywhere else for that matter – but the problem we faced was how to maximize both pleasure and educational value at the same time for them. We came up with the idea of giving them a project based on the places we intended to see. The project was designed as a questionnaire with multi-choice answers and marks awarded so they could compete against each other. At the end of the vacation we would total the scores and award suitable prizes. The projects were put in covers printed with a picture of ancient Roman and bearing a pseudo Roman name that was recognizable as a corruption of each child’s name. For example, the kids real names are Charlotte and Dan, so we endorsed the project covers, Charlotus and Danicus. The hardest part was ensuring that answers to the questions were visibly available at the places on our itinerary and that their ability level matched the ages of the children. For example, one of the questions we chose for our visit to the Colosseum was “How long did it take the Romans to build it?” Before including this question with its five multi-choice answers, we had to ensure that there was an information source bearing the correct answer, clearly visible in the Colosseum. We did all the necessary research for this kind of thing, using guide books and the Internet over a three week period before the holiday.
We also needed to ensure that the project included plenty of humour and light-hearted answers amongst the multi-choices. For example, a question that asked “Who was the first king of a united Italy” included “Francesco Totti”, the A. S. Roma soccer star as one of the possible answers.
The vacation was kept as a complete surprise from the children until they actually boarded the plane. Their mother told them that Nanny and Grandad were coming to collect them and take them to stay at their house for a few days. When they arrived at Luton Airport and boarded the flight for Rome their surprise and delight brought tears of joy to our eyes as well as their’s.
We presented them with their projects and they studied them during the two and a half hour flight.
After booking into our hotel in Rome, we immediately headed for the Colosseum, the nearest of the places we had decided to include in our itinerary. By the end of our first afternoon in Rome, both children had correctly answered all the questions about this world famous historic monument but much more importantly, they had really enjoyed their first few hours in this wonderful, ancient city.
That evening, we ate a delicious Roman dinner, sitting outside at an inexpensive little restaurant in an atmospheric alleyway just off the Piazzo di Rotonda.
Day two included more of the ancient city area before ascending to the Piazza del Campidoglio and then across the Tiber to have our lunch in the Trastevere area at another excellent restaurant located in a busy Piazza. Four light lunches, two beers and two soft drinks in one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, should surely have cost more than a couple of burger meals with drinks in an English motorway service station? But it didn’t and we could have easily whiled the rest of the afternoon away sitting at our table in this charming piazza.
Instead, we got up and continued our tour, reaching the Vatican by the end of the afternoon and returning to our hotel exhausted by way of the Ponte Sant Angelo and the Trevi fountain.
Our final day, started by helping the children to discover the name of the famous English poet who had lived and died in a house at the foot of the Spanish Steps. Then we ascended the steps to find out where Galileo had been imprisoned by the inquisition whilst they investigated whether a case for heresy against him could be substantiated. From there, we entered the Piazza del Pollo before wandering through Rome’s upmarket shopping area, Another lunch, not quite so inexpensive this time, was enjoyed in a street near to the Piazza Navonna. Afterwards we made our way to the Pantheon where more project questions were completed. We finished our last afternoon by walking through the Campo di Fiori and then on to the ancient city once more. Here, we discovered some of the things we had missed the previous day and finally accepted that three days to see so much in Rome is really quite inadequate.
Charlotus and Danicus presented their completed projects to us that evening over dinner just around the corner from the Trevi fountain, into which they had earlier thrown the obligatory coins. It had been a wonderful Roman holiday for them and for us. For anyone thinking of doing something similar for children of this age group, our best travel tip is to prepare a project like the one described in this article. You’ll find its more than worth the effort.
New details emerge in ‘kids for cash’ scheme
Lawyer Robert J. Powell’s undercover role is described in a brief prosecutors filed this month in Scranton. They laid out fresh details of the alleged kickback scheme, which included excerpts of conversations Powell recorded.
Read more on The Philadelphia Inquirer
First, set aside a few minutes a day. Talk about problems or challenges that might have come up during the day and discuss how you handled them. You can ask your child for his ideas on simple matters to help him build problem-solving skills. These skills can help him resist peer pressure to use alcohol and drugs to solve problems. Decision making skills are important Children learn how to make decisions. You can guide them with a key set of questions to ask when faced with a choice: What am I trying to decide and what do I know about it? How do I know my information is accurate? Who gave me the information? What more do I need to know before going ahead? Who has the added information I need? Once the decision is made, ask these questions: What are the good effects of this decision? What are the bad effects? After this, you can ask your child to reconsider a decision and take responsibility for the consequences. Second, validate your child’s feelings. Sometimes, children react to situations in ways we think are inappropriate, silly, or overdramatic. That’s because children don’t have the benefit of our adult experience. What is minor to us may be very important to them. For example, if your child says, “Mrs. Smith doesn’t like me. She gives me too much homework,” don’t dismiss your child by saying, “That’s ridiculous. Everyone gets the same amount of homework. ” Instead, validate your child’s feelings, investigate the situation, and guide her toward a better understanding of the situation. “Oh, I wouldn’t like it if I felt my teacher didn’t like me. But does everybody get the same homework assignment?” If you’re not sure you have all the facts regarding a situation, assure your child you will take action, such as talking to Mrs. Smith. This lets your child know that you respect her feelings and are willing to help her work through difficult situations. Read more at Parent drug resource How To Talk To Your Kids About Drugs – Part Two Practice active listening. When you show interest in what your child has to say, he or she will open up. One technique to show you’re listening and understanding is to paraphrase what your child tells you. Try doing this the next time you have a conversation. For example, your child says, “I like playing soccer, but practice is the same time as my favorite show on TV. ” You might say, “Wow, that’s a tough choice. On one hand, you really like playing soccer; on the other hand, you don’t want to miss your favorite show. ” Ask questions. Children have a lot to share when they think their opinions matter. Ask for your child’s input about family decisions. These decisions may range from what to have for dinner to where to go for a family outing. Showing your interest in her opinion will make your child feel more comfortable about opening up to you. If you are successful in establishing open lines of communication with your child about day-to-day events, he or she will be more likely to seek your input on more serious issues as well. Many of the skills you use in daily conversations may prove useful when discussing tougher issues. How To Talk To Your Kids About Drugs – Part Three Express thoughts and feelings. Being able to express thoughts and feelings with someone we feel comfortable around—whether it is a spouse, a coworker, or a friend—can make all the difference in how we feel about ourselves and in how we interact with the world around us. Similarly, young people need opportunities to express their thoughts and new feelings. When we try to limit the thoughts and feelings of our children, we take a great deal away from them. When we deny that their feelings are real, we are denying that children are individuals with their own perceptions. Young people who are taught to express themselves have an easier time dealing with peer pressure and resisting other temptations.
Kids can just be incorrigible at times! Callous little punks; how can they joke around about the things that are held sacred by society, like life and death, mass safety and demise? After all the bombings and shootings that have taken thousands of American lives in recent years, how can they joke about stuff that continues to traumatize most people, let alone make terrorist threats in jest? They don’t even mean to be mean, they are just bored and fooling around. Some kids are just missing that special empathy gene, I suppose. Good luck teaching them how to care. Just in the last three days, there have been bogus bombing threats at two different high schools: one in Massachusetts, another in Florida. In Florida, the 14-year-old was just bored, hanging out at a friend’s house after school. He decided to call the school and told a clerk there was a bomb on campus, and if he did not get a million dollars he would blow it up. He also threatened to activate the bomb if he saw students moving around. After evacuating all students and staff from the school building, a bomb squad conducted a thorough search but found no bomb. The detectives ran the number the call came from through a reverse phone lookup; it revealed the name and address of the culprit’s friend, and the insensitive youth was arrested and charged. I’ll bet he didn’t even understand how bad what he did was. The Massachusetts situation was similar, differing only in the way the bomb threat was delivered. In fact, it was the second bomb threat in two weeks received by a school in that area. The previous threat was at a different nearby school; a laconic note pasted to the door of the boys’ bathroom turned out to be a hoax. This time, a similar note naming the school and the date of the bombing was found in the bathroom of the local supermarket. The student who found the note immediately informed the principal and the school. Thankfully, it was early enough for the school to still be empty, the principal issued a reverse 911 announcement to parents and staff. Once again, the exhaustive search produced no explosives on the school premises. The police are investigating the threats, as both have been delivered in a similar style and possibly by the same culprit. The search is complicated by the fact that the culprit was smart enough not to use a phone, prohibiting the use of a reverse phone lookup. But I have a hunch that if these were also kids, by now they’ve texted someone to brag about the stir they’ve caused, and it’s only a matter of time before someone comes forward.
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